Tales from today's commute....

[Beebo]

lovely ride this morning, not to hot, not too cold, no real wind, no bad drivers, just perfect.
I changed the chain in a bit of a rush on Tuesday night and now the front deraileur doesnt work properly, to save any bother I have just left it on the big ring, I only drop into the small ring a couple of times on my commute anyway, so I am just grinding up the hills now. It makes me think I could get away with a single speed one day, which may be a good idea.

 

[fossyant]

Started out cloudy, but the sun popped out for the last half. Caught up a lad in Cheadle. Crazy bermuda shorts, bushy blond hair under a helmet, and a hard case Ducati rucksack....

Riding..................... a Colnago cross bike WTF . Had a brief chat, commented that it was a rather nice bike for commuting - and if he rode that every day - he did Sounded like an Aussie which may explain the crazy shorts and hair !!

Put in some effort on the run into the office, realised I might have a pop at a Strava segment near work, so eased off for a couple of hundred yards, turned into the segment, powered up, back end spun on mud, but gripped, then hammered it. Teeth rattled to bits on the poor surface, got the KOM back ! May have to hit it harder tomorrow.

 

[BSRU]

Oh dear, no cadence or speed information from my GSC-10 this morning, over a year old so I assume it needs a new battery.
But no, some stupid idiot used the Garmin on a different bike yesterday and forgot to change it to the one he was using this morning
Luckily I rode the exact same route as I did a few weeks ago, so I was able to get the correct distance data, the GPS only distance was 700 metres shorter than the one recorded with the GSC-10.

 

[Frood42]

Another uneventful ride back last night and in this morning.
My only complaint is the annoying headwind.

Dropped a guy on a brompton.

 

[ianrauk]

Nearly got off'ed by a fox today.. a dead one. Cycling down hill at a very good crack, at the bottom of the hill was a dead fox lying right across the lane. A big blighter too. Coming the other way up the hill was a car. So either hit the fox at speed and probably come off or swerve to the right. Upcoming car must have thought I was some sort of maniac swerving towards him.

Stopped just after and went back to move the fox to the side of the road. Now I'm not usually screamish at blood and guts or road kill. But this poor fox got a direct hit on the head so all it's brain matter was coming out of it's mouth. It didn't look nice.

Apart from that, a cracking ride in today. Nice and warm, very little wind, light traffic. Got some good speed up. Was overtaken by a couple of racing, leg shaved roadies. Once of them riding one of those vile pasty pale coloured Bianchi's. . Couldn't be arsed to catch them up

 

[martinclive]

Just not enjoying the cycle to and from work at the moment, coming home its a bloody head wind again, I just think 'give me a break for once please'
Going by bus or car is a waste of time, but I am just not in the mood for it

+1 to that Kev
Wind last night was just a pain again - just seems to sap your energy
Want to try and meet up with us some days? - at least we can all complain together!

 

[MisterStan]

Just not enjoying the cycle to and from work at the moment, coming home its a bloody head wind again, I just think 'give me a break for once please'
Going by bus or car is a waste of time, but I am just not in the mood for it

+1 to that Kev
Wind last night was just a pain again - just seems to sap your energy
Want to try and meet up with us some days? - at least we can all complain together!

You guys need to man up a bit......





(Martin, please don't mention our conversation about wind this morning)

 

[martinclive]

You guys need to man up a bit......

Yeah - and get younger!!!

 

[ianrauk]

@Nocode
Hey mate.
Haven't seeing you posting in this thread for a while.
Still commuting? Things all ok?

 

[Andrew_P]

I have turned in to an angry cyclist, the last few days I have been getting home/work feeling quite stressed due to how I have felt I have been treated. So from now on I am going to try and consider any overtake that doesn't take me with it as a good one.

 

[MickL]

Took the subway to work today, legs still feel like lead climbing the hills. Still some how faster than normal so not to bad :-)

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Nearly got off'ed by a fox today.. a dead one. Cycling down hill at a very good crack, at the bottom of the hill was a dead fox lying right across the lane. A big blighter too. Coming the other way up the hill was a car. So either hit the fox at speed and probably come off or swerve to the right. Upcoming car must have thought I was some sort of maniac swerving towards him.

Stopped just after and went back to move the fox to the side of the road. Now I'm not usually screamish at blood and guts or road kill. But this poor fox got a direct hit on the head so all it's brain matter was coming out of it's mouth. It didn't look nice.

Apart from that, a cracking ride in today. Nice and warm, very little wind, light traffic. Got some good speed up. Was overtaken by a couple of racing, leg shaved roadies. Once of them riding one of those vile pasty pale coloured Bianchi's. . Couldn't be arsed to catch them up

Similar things seem to happen to us two. I was nearly off'ed by a dead rabbit this morning. Two of them in the road, saw one, not the other, luckily road was clear and I just avoided it. Saw a lot of road kill this morning, as well as the rabbits saw two badgers, what looked like a crow that was in a few pieces, and a very squished hedgehog (that one thinking about it might have been yesterday)

 

[fossyant]

I have turned in to an angry cyclist, the last few days I have been getting home/work feeling quite stressed due to how I have felt I have been treated. So from now on I am going to try and consider any overtake that doesn't take me with it as a good one.

Chill, treat it as a race and the cars are only trying to draft you before the overtake.

 

[Nocode]

@Nocode
Hey mate.
Haven't seeing you posting in this thread for a while.
Still commuting? Things all ok?

Hi mate, yeah sorry - for the last few months I had stepped-up my triathlon training for Windsor (my A race) last month and had stopped commuting to work as it was a bit tricky to fit the specifics of my training sessions around the commute.

I've started commuting again this week now that I've done Windsor as I need a break from a specific training programme - so will just pootle into work, do a bit of running and swimming where I can and then think about a challenge for next year.

 

[Nocode]

... and then think about a challenge for next year.

I do however need to start thinking about increasing my mileage and getting my first 100k and 100 miler under my belt... Think next year I'm going to be looking at a 1/2 Ironman so will be looking for some longer rides/sportives.